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CHANGES  IN  THE  FOOD  SUPPLY  AND 
THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION 


Changes  in  the  Food  Supply 

AND  Their  Relation 

TO  Nutrition 


By 
LAFAYETTE  B.   MENDEL 

Professor  of  Physiological  Chemistry  in  the  Sheffield 
Scientific  School  of  Yale  University 


New  Haven:   Yale  University  Pbess 

London:   Humphrey  Milford 

Oxford  University  Press 

MDCCCCXVI 


Copyright,  1916 
By  Yale  University  Press 


First  printed  February,  1916,  1500  copies 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

This  essay  was  written  for  the 
meetings  of  The  Second  Pan  American 
Scientific  Congress,  at  Washington, 
December,   1915. 

Lafayette  B.  Mendel 

Sheffield  Scientific  School, 
Yale  University, 

New  Haven,  Connecticut. 


CHANGES  IN  THE  FOOD  SUPPLY  AND 
THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION 


CHANGES    IN    THE    FOOD    SUPPLY    AND 
THEIR    RELATION    TO    NUTRITION 

"In  the  type  of  civilization  with  which  we  are 
most  familiar  there  are  two  fundamental  ele- 
ments— supplies  of  food  energy  and  supplies  of 
mechanical  energy.  Since,  at  present,  partly 
because  of  geographical  conditions,  these  do  not 
necessarily  (or  even  in  general)  occur  together, 
there  is  a  third  essential  factor,  the  line  of  trans- 
port."^ A  comprehensive  consideration  of  any 
one  of  these  factors,  such  as  the  food  supply,  can- 
not be  completely  dissociated  from  its  relations 
to  the  others.  The  development  of  commerce 
among  nations  having  adequate  means  of  com- 
munication has,  for  example,  rendered  the  dis- 
tribution of  food  materials  easy  and  developed  a 
sense    of    security     (under    normal    conditions) 

1  Dickson,  H.  N.:  The  Redistribution  of  Mankind. 
Presidential  Address  to  Section  E  (Geography)  at  the 
Birmingham  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  September, 
1913.  Report  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  Birmingham  1913,  pp.  536-546.    London  1914. 


2  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

against  failure  of  food  supplies.  The  growing 
organization  of  transportation  facilities  has  en- 
couraged the  introduction  of  dietary  changes 
never  thought  possible  or  even  contemplated  a 
few  generations  ago.  Incidents  associated  with 
the  altered  distribution  of  wealth  have  improved 
the  nutrition  as  well  as  other  conditions  of  living 
among  that  large  group  of  our  population  which 
has  been  termed  the  "healthier  well-to-do  classes." 
The  supply  of  food  energy  and  its  availability 
where  needed  are  interrelated  closely  with  a  vari- 
ety of  factors,  the  bearing  of  which  upon  the 
problem  at  hand  is  not  always  evident  upon  the 
surface.  Some  of  these  features  may  be  classi- 
fied superficially  as  follows : 

1.  Food  production. 

2.  Food  preservation  and  food  conservation. 

3.  Transportation  facilities. 

4.  Customs  in  diet. 

5.  Changing  industrial  and  social  conditions, 
and  other  economic  and  hygienic  factors. 

Food  Production. — The  problem  of  food  pro- 
duction is  the  fundamental  concern  of  agriculture. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION     3 

How  profoundly  its  practices  are  being  changed 
by  the  progress  of  science  and  the  mechanic  arts 
is  familiar  to  every  observant  person.  The  food 
supply  has  been  increased  in  part  through  more 
intensive  methods  of  agriculture,  in  part  through 
the  enormous  extension  of  areas  suitable  for  culti- 
vation. In  view  of  the  increase  of  population  it 
has  been  a  favorite  pastime  for  scientists  to  cal- 
culate the  possibilities  of  the  food  supply  of  the 
future  and  to  venture  prophesies  involving  the 
prospect  of  impending  failures.  A  forecast  by 
Sir  William  Crookes  of  the  relations  between  the 
probable  increase  of  the  world's  supply  and  de- 
mand of  wheat — "the  most  sustaining  food  grain 
of  the  great  Caucasian  race" — was  widely  dis- 
cussed when  his  estimates  were  published.  In  a 
Presidential  Address  to  the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1898  Crookes 
said : 

Should  all  the  wheat-growing  countries 
add  to  their  (producing)  area  to  the  utmost 
capacity,  on  the  most  careful  calculation  the 
yield  would  give  us  only  an  addition  of  some 


4  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

100,000,000  acres,  supplying,  at  the  average 
world  yield  of  12.7  bushels  to  the  acre, 
1,270,000,000  bushels,  just  enough  to  supply 
the  increase  of  population  among  bread  eat- 
ers till  the  year  1931.  .  .  .  Thirty  years  is 
but  a  day  in  the  life  of  a  nation.  Those 
present  who  may  attend  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  thirty  years  hence  will 
judge  how  far  my  forecasts  are  justified. 

Fifteen  years  later  Professor  Dickson  gaid: 

Half  the  allotted  span  has  now  elapsed, 
and  it  may  be  useful  to  inquire  how  things 
are  going.  Fortunately,  this  can  be  easily 
done,  up  to  a  certain  point,  at  any  rate,  by 
reference  to  a  paper  published  recently  by 
Dr.  J.  F.  Unstead,  in  which  comparisons  are 
given  for  the  decades  1881-1890,  1891-1900, 
and  1901-1910.  Dr.  Unstead  shows  that 
the  total  wheat  harvest  for  the  world  may 
be  estimated  at  2,258,000,000  bushels  for  the 
first  of  these  periods,  2,575,000,000  for  the 
second,    and    3,233,000,000    for    the    third, 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION      5 

increases  of  14  per  cent  and  25  per  cent, 
respectively.  He  points  out  that  the  in- 
creases were  due  "mainly  to  an  increased 
acreage,"  the  areas  being  192,000,000,  211,- 
000,000,  and  242,000,000  acres,  but  also 
"to  some  extent  (about  8  per  cent)  to  an 
increased  average  yield  per  acre,  for  while 
in  the  first  two  periods  this  was  12  bushels, 
in  the  third  period  it  rose  to  13  bushels  per 
acre." 

If  we  take  the  period  1891-1900,  as  nearly 
corresponding  to  Sir  William  Crookes's  ini- 
tial date,  we  find  that  the  succeeding  period 
shows  an  increase  of  658,000,000  bushels, 
or  about  half  the  estimated  increase  re- 
quired by  1931,  and  that  attained  chiefly 
by  "increased  acreage." 

But  signs  are  not  wanting  that  increase 
in  this  way  will  not  go  on  indefinitely.  We 
note  (also  from  Dr.  Unstead's  paper)  that 
in  the  two  later  periods  the  percentage  of 
total  wheat  produced  which  was  exported 
from  the  United  States  fell  from  32  to  19, 


6  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

the  yield  per  acre  showing  an  increase  mean- 
while to  14  bushels.  In  the  Russian  Empire 
the  percentage  fell  from  26  to  23,  and  only 
in  the  youngest  of  the  new  countries — Can- 
ada, Australia,  and  the  Argentine — do  we 
find  large  proportional  increases.  Again,  it 
is  significant  that  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
which  is,  and  always  has  been,  the  most 
sensitive  of  all  wheat-producing  countries  to 
variations  in  the  floating  supply,  the  rate  of 
falling  off  of  home  production  shows  marked 
if  irregular  diminution. 

Looking  at  it  in  another  way,  we  find 
(still  from  Dr.  Unstead's  figures)  that  the 
total  amount  sent  out  by  the  great  export- 
ing countries  averaged  in  1881-1890,  295,- 
000,000  bushels;  1891-1900,  402,000,000; 
1901-1910,  532,000,000.  These  quantities 
represent,  respectively,  13,  15.6,  and  16.1 
per  cent  of  the  total  production,  and  it 
would  appear  that  the  percentage  available 
for  export  from  these  regions  is,  for  the  time 
at    least,    approaching    its    limit — i.e.,    that 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION     7 

only  about  one-sixth  of  the  wheat  produced 
is  available  from  surpluses  in  the  regions 
of  production  for  making  good  deficiencies 
elsewhere. 

There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  abundant 
evidence  that  improved  agriculture  is  begin- 
ning to  raise  the  yield  per  acre  over  a  large 
part  of  the  producing  area.  Between  the 
periods  1881-1890  and  1901-1910  the  aver- 
age in  the  United  States  rose  from  12  to  14 
bushels;  in  Russia,  from  8  to  10;  in  Aus- 
tralia, from  8  to  10.  It  is  likely  that  in  these 
last  two  cases  at  least  a  part  of  the  increase 
is  due  merely  to  more  active  occupation  of 
fresh  lands  as  well  as  to  the  use  of  more 
suitable  varieties  of  seed,  and  the  effect  of 
improvements  in  methods  of  cultivation  alone 
is  more  apparent  in  the  older  countries. 
During  the  same  period  the  average  yield 
increased  in  the  United  Kingdom  from  28 
to  32  bushels;  in  France  from  17  to  20; 
Holland,  27  to  33 ;  Belgium,  30  to  35 ;  and 


8  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

it  is  most  marked  in  the  German  Empire,  for 
which  the  figures  are  19  and  29. 

In  another  important  paper  Dr.  Unstead 
has  shown  that  the  production  of  wheat  in 
North  America  may  still  in  all  likelihood  be 
very  largely  increased  by  merely  increasing 
the  area  under  cultivation,  and  the  reason- 
ing by  which  he  justifies  this  conclusion  cer- 
tainly holds  good  over  large  districts  else- 
where. It  is  of  course  impossible,  in  the 
present  crude  state  of  our  knowledge  of  our 
own  plant,  to  form  any  accurate  estimate  of 
the  area  which  may,  by  the  use  of  suitable 
seeds  or  otherwise,  become  available  for 
extensive  cultivation.  But  I  think  it  is  clear 
that  the  available  proportion  of  the  total 
supply  from  "extensive"  sources  has  reached, 
or  almost  reached,  its  maximum,  and  that  we 
must  depend  more  and  more  upon  intensive 
farming,  with  its  greater  demands  for  labor. 

The  average  total  area  under  wheat  is 
estimated  by  Dr.  Unstead  as  192,000,000 
for  1881-1890,  211,000,000  acres  for  1891- 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION     9 

1900,  and  242,000,000  acres  for  1901-1910. 

Making  the  guess — for  we  can  make  nothing 
better — that  this  area  may  be  increased  to 
300,000,000  acres,  and  that  under  ordinary 
agriculture  the  average  yield  may  eventually 
be  increased  to  20  bushels  over  the  whole,  we 
get  an  average  harvest  of  6,000,000,000 
bushels  of  wheat.  The  average  wheat 
eater  consumes,  according  to  Sir  William 
Crookes's  figures,  about  4%  bushels  per 
annum;  but  the  amount  tends  to  increase. 
It  is  as  much  (according  to  Dr.  Unstead) 
as  6  bushels  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  8 
bushels  in  France.  Let  us  take  the  British 
figure,  and  it  appears  that  on  a  liberal  esti- 
mate the  earth  may  in  the  end  be  able 
to  feed  permanently  1,000,000,000  wheat 
eaters.  If  prophecies  based  on  population 
statistics  are  trustworthy,  the  crisis  will  be 
upon  us  before  the  end  of  this  century.^ 

Interesting  as  such  speculations  are,  despite  tjie 
number  of  uncertain  variables   with  which  they 
2  Dickson,  H.  N.:  loc.  cit.,  p.  538. 


10    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

necessarily  deal,  they  fail  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  altered  prospects  arising  out  of  the  mod- 
ern increasing  knowledge  of  the  science  of  nutri- 
tion. It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  progress 
in  food  chemistry  and  the  study  of  metabolism  wiU 
point  the  way  to  substitutes  for  what  is  now  re- 
garded as  a  staple  foodstuff.  We  shall  see  what 
changing  customs  in  diet  have  already  brought 
about  in  many  instances.  If  corn,  for  example, 
does  not  satisfy  the  requirement  of  a  staple  crop 
for  human  consumption,  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely, 
in  view  of  information  already  available,  that 
small  addenda  of  other  foods  may  suffice  to  sup- 
plement it  so  as  to  produce  a  more  perfect  ration. 
One  may  appropriately  recall  here  that  evidences 
of  adequate  nutrition  are  available  from  people 
nourished  in  most  diverse  ways  in  different  parts 
of  the  world.  Even  if  the  wheat  problem  were  to 
become  one  of  urgency  within  an  appreciable 
period,  this  need  not  necessarily  be  construed  into 
a  forecast  of  an  actual  shortage  of  food.  Within 
a  few  months  attention  has  been  directed  to  the 
possibility  of  growing  in  the  United   States   at 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   11 

least  two  plant  products  which  may  serve  as 
human  foods.  One  of  these  is  proso  millet,  the 
other  grain  sorghum  or  kaoliang,  both  of  which 
have  long  been  known  in  other  parts  of  the  world 
as  constituents  of  the  diet  of  mankind.  Both  of 
these  seeds  can  be  milled  like  the  familiar  cereals 
and  served  like  these  or  transformed  into  culinary 
products  after  admixture  with  flour  which  enables 
them  to  be  prepared  for  baking.  The  peculiar 
agricultural  advantage  in  such  crops  lies  in  the 
fact  that  they  are  drought-resistant.  Proso  will 
grow  when  and  where  the  staple  small  grains  that 
require  moist  regions  fail.  Kaoliang  represents  a 
tropical  annual  plant  which  can,  by  cultivation, 
be  extended  north  as  far  as  Indian  corn  on  this 
continent.  The  dietary  possibilities  of  both  proso 
and  kaoliang  have  already  been  tested  in  a  semi- 
public  way.^ 

Food  Preservation  and  Food  Conservation. — 
The  preservation  of  food  affects  the  food  supply 
by  making  it  possible  to  utilize  in  times  and  places 

3  Hansen,  N.  E.:  Proso  and  Kaoliang  as  Table  Foods. 
South  Dakota  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  Bulletin 
158,  March,  1915. 


12    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

of  relative  scarcity  products  which  are  available 
in  a  season  and  region  of  abundance.  From  an 
early  period  preservative  methods  have  been  em- 
ployed. Some  of  them  are  so  familiar  that  they 
are  frequently  not  even  recognized  as  belonging  in 
the  category  of  food  preservation.  Desiccation, 
canning,  pickling,  salting,  smoking,  low  tempera- 
ture, freezing,  special  chemicals — these  are  some 
of  the  factors  that  enter  into  this  aspect  of  our 
theme.  The  significance  of  most,  if  not  all,  of 
these  procedures  is  more  largely  economic  than 
hygienic. 

The  cold  storage  methods  now  in  use  represent 
a  comparatively  recent  development  of  the  preser- 
vation problem.  According  to  Sherman,  only 
since  about  1893  have  the  quantities  of  food  mate- 
rials placed  in  cold  storage  been  large  enough  to 
have  an  appreciable  effect  upon  market  condi- 
tions. As  an  illustration  of  its  efficiency  recent 
experiments  have  shown  that  fresh  fish — a  food 
product  notably  subject  to  speedy  deteriora- 
tion— may  be  preserved  frozen,  by  the  best  cold 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION      13 

storage  processes,  without  undergoing  any  impor- 
tant change  for  at  least  two  years.* 

Modern  bacteriology  has  placed  upon  cleanli- 
ness a  preservative  value  which  may  appear  sur- 
prising in  respect  to  its  efficiency,  particularly 
in  conjunction  with  low  temperatures  which 
inhibit  the  development  of  micro-organisms  detri- 
mental to  foods.  As  an  example  of  what  such 
sanitary  precautions  can  accomplish  in  the  case 
of  readily  deteriorating  milk  Sherman  states  that 
"three  American  dairy  farms  exhibited  raw  milk 
at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900,  one  of  them 
sending  weekly  shipments  throughout  the  summer, 
each  of  which  was  kept  on  exhibition  in  the  raw 
state  without  spoilage  until  the  next  shipment 
arrived.  It  was  difficult  to  convince  the  jury  of 
European  experts  of  the  fact  that  'cleanliness  and 
cold'  were  the  only  preservatives  needed  to  accom- 

*  Smith,  C.  S. :  A  Study  of  the  Influence  of  Cold-Storage 
Temperatures  upon  the  Chemical  Composition  and  Nutri- 
tive Value  of  Fish.  Biochemical  Bulletin,  1913,  iii,  54; 
Perlzweig,  W,,  and  Gies,  W.  J.:  A  Further  Study  of  the 
Chemical  Composition  and  Nutritive  Value  of  Fish  Sub- 
jected to  Prolonged  Periods  of  Cold  Storage.  Ibid.,  1913, 
iii,  69. 


14  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

plish  the  keeping  of  raw  milk  in  a  fresh,  sweet 
condition  for  two  to  four  weeks  in  midsummer."^ 
Precisely  such  methods,  combined  with  modern 
transport  facilities,  have  made  it  possible  to  ex- 
tend the  range  of  milk  supply  in  our  large  cities 
literally  hundreds  of  miles  and  to  bring  an  indis- 
pensable food  at  a  reasonable  price  into  every 
home.  There  is,  indeed,  a  profound  difference 
between  marketing  milk  in  the  familiar  manner 
now  practiced  and  the  older  mode  of  distribution 
when  goats  or  cows  were  driven  in  front  of  the 
home  to  be  milked  there. 

Probably  no  single  preservation  device  excels 
that  of  desiccating  the  material.  In  the  absence 
of  moisture  decay  is  arrested.  Where  the  water 
content  of  a  natural  food  is  not  unduly  large  it 
can  often  be  dried  readily  with  success.  Dried 
meats,  fish,  and  fruits  have  long  belonged  to  the 
list  of  preserved  foods.  In  the  case  of  products 
comparatively  rich  in  water,  particularly  liquid 
or  semi-liquid  foods,  successful  methods  of  desic- 
cation have  awaited  the  perfection  which  is  begin- 

5  Sherman,  H.  C:  Food  Products.    New  York  1914,  p.  53. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION    15 

ning  to  manifest  itself  at  the  present  day.  Aside 
from  the  element  of  cost,  the  use  of  heat  to  expel 
moisture  has  the  objection  that  it  alters  the  pro- 
duct in  some  cases  so  that  it  is  no  longer  dieteti- 
cally  acceptable.  Heat  also  may  remove  desir- 
able volatile  ingredients.  Flavors,  which  play  a 
very  important  role  in  rendering  a  food  accept- 
able to  the  consumer,  are  not  always  thermostab- 
ile.  Modern  industry  is  likely  to  overcome  many 
of  the  difficulties  by  the  device  of  desiccation  at 
lower  temperatures  either  in  a  vacuum  or  a  cur- 
rent of  air.  A  most  satisfactory  instance  of  this 
is  seen  in  the  case  of  milk.  Condensed  and  evapo- 
rated milks  are  likely  to  be  superseded  by  dried 
milk  of  which  superior  grades  are  already  being 
manufactured.  The  successful  desiccation  of 
milk — a  product  of  which  seven-eighths  is  water — 
with  retention  of  the  solubility  on  which  the  prac- 
tical applications  largely  depend,  and  with  its 
nutritive  virtues  presumably  intact,  is  an  up-to- 
date  accomplishment. 

The  possibility   of  a   satisfactory  outcome  of 
the  efforts  now  being  made  in  the  milk  industry 


16    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice.  Milk  not 
only  is  a  valuable  food;  it  is  at  present  an  indis- 
pensable component  of  the  diet  during  growth, 
and  no  entirely  satisfactory  method  of  preserva- 
tion has  hitherto  been  devised.  With  one  Ameri- 
can brand  of  dried  milk  as  the  chief  component  of 
the  ration,  several  investigators,  including  my- 
self, have  raised  small  animals  into  a  second 
generation.  If  the  best  dried  milk  of  the  future 
shall  be  shown  to  retain  even  the  more  subtle 
physiological  properties,  such  as  its  antiscyorbutic 
potency,  it  will  represent  good  achievement. 

The  expression  "food  conservation"  is  used  in 
the  present  discussion  perhaps  not  in  accord  with 
a  strict  definition  but  rather  in  the  broader  cur- 
rent sense  in  which  we  speak  of  the  conservation  of 
other  resources.  The  growing  use  of  by-products 
finds  its  exemplification  in  the  food  industries  as 
weU  as  in  other  branches  of  commerce;  and 
directly  or  indirectly  this  aifects  the  problem  of 
food  supply.  In  some  instances  the  use  of  the 
by-products  has  rendered  profitable  and  therefore 
possible  the  production  of  a  food  which  otherwise 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   17 

could  not  be  marketed  advantageously.  The 
meat  industry  presumably  affords  instances  where 
the  price  of  edible  parts  has  been  kept  within 
reasonable  limits  by  the  increasing  market 
value  of  what  was  once  merely  worthless  refuse. 
Tankage  belongs  to  the  latter  category.  The 
refinement  of  this  aspect  of  modern  industry  is 
exemplified  when  the  fine  hairs  in  the  ears  of  cattle 
fattening  for  market  are  clipped  for  the  special 
manufacture  of  expensive  "camel's  hair"  brushes ; 
and  likewise  in  the  careful  removal  and  collection 
of  the  seeds  from  raisins  introduced  into  commer- 
cial mince  meat.  From  these  supposedly  worth- 
less seeds  valuable  raisin  oil  is  subsequently  ex- 
tracted. The  by-products  of  the  sugar  industries 
are  notably  important.  Part  of  them  are  literally 
used  to  get  gold.  The  residues  from  the  desac- 
charification  factories  are  rich  in  nitrogen  which 
is  in  part  converted  into  sodium  cyanide.  Tons 
of  this  have  been  exported  to  the  Transvaal,  where 
it  has  been  used  for  extracting  the  precious  metal 
by  the  well-known  cyanide  process. 

For  the  food  supply  it  is  more  important  that 


18    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

in  many  instances  what  was  in  the  past  regarded 
as  refuse  or  a  useless  dietary  constituent  has  been 
converted  into  edible  products.  Sometimes,  as 
in  the  case  of  grain  products,  in  the  distilleries, 
breweries,  etc.,  by-products  now  serve  as  cattle 
feeds  and  thus  indirectly  conserve  the  food  supply 
of  man.  In  other  instances  new  human  foods  have 
been  devised.  Cotton  seed  oil,  oleo  oils  from  beef, 
and  other  fats  are  no  longer  despised  as  constitu- 
ents of  the  diet.  In  some  cases  chemistry  has 
aided  to  alter  the  fats  into  a  suitable  texture  and 
consistency  for  culinary  purposes.  Slaughter- 
house blood  finds  its  way  into  food  products. 
Corn  sirups  and  glucose  sugars  artificially  pre- 
pared from  cheap  sources  of  starch  have  survived 
the  propaganda  of  prejudice  and  now  represent 
one  of  the  cheapest  sources  of  wholesome  nutri- 
ment. Deteriorated  products  such  as  old  butter 
are  "renovated"  and  returned  into  the  food 
treasury.  Hydrogenated  fats  are  a  modern 
innovation. 

The  digestive  functions  of  man  offer  a  barrier 
to  the  successful  use  of  certain  agricultural  pro- 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   19 

ducts  as  human  nutrients.  Complete  digestion 
is  a  prerequisite  to  adequate  nutrition.  Cellulose, 
which  is  so  widely  distributed  in  plants,  is  unutil- 
ized by  man  because  it  is  indigestible.  It  is 
theoretically  conceivable,  however,  that  cellulose 
can  be  converted  into  available  carbohydrate  by 
chemical  procedures.  Other  plant  constituents, 
wholesome  in  themselves,  are  often  practically 
unutilized  in  the  alimentary  tract  because  they 
are  protected  by  impervious  coverings.  In  such 
cases  the  physical  texture  of  the  product  is  at 
fault.  The  alimentary  utilization  of  the  food- 
stuffs, particularly  the  indispensable  proteins,  in 
common  foods  such  as  the  legumes  and  cereal 
grains  is  far  below  what  pertains  in  most  animal 
food  products.  Some  presumably  valuable  vege- 
table proteins  cannot  be  used  as  food  by  man 
because  his  digestive  juices  cannot  get  at  them  in 
the  condition  in  which  they  are  usually  exhibited 
for  use.  Improved  culinary  methods  and  pro- 
cedures for  extreme  comminution,  particularly 
after  desiccation,  may  alter  this  situation  in  com- 
ing years.     A  beginning  has  already  been  advo- 


20  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

cated  by  H.  Friedenthal  in  the  case  of  certain 
green  vegetables.  The  growing  use  of  nut  pro- 
ducts and  nut  pastes,  and  the  widespread  popu- 
larity of  the  readily  digested  "peanut  butter," 
prepared  from  an  article  which  is  looked  upon  as 
difficult  of  digestion  in  its  imperfectly  commi- 
nuted form,  shows  what  industries  can  do  to  over- 
come dietary  prejudices  or  domestic  ignorance,  by 
enhancing  palatability  and  digestibility. 

Of  all  the  foodstuffs,  the  proteins  offer  the  most 
serious  problem.  They  represent  the  *indispens- 
able  staple  for  tissue  construction;  they  are  pro- 
duced at  the  greatest  expense.  The  quantitative 
aspects  of  the  protein  requirement  of  man  have 
been  warmly  debated  in  recent  years.  One  ex- 
treme view  of  the  superiority  and  consequent 
liberal  need  of  protein  was  expressed  by  Liebig* 
as  follows : 

Everywhere  throughout  organized  nature, 
where  animal  life  is  developed,  we  find  the 
phenomena  of  life  depending  on  the  presence 

6  von  Liebig,  J.:  Familiar  Letters  on  Chemistry.  3d 
edition.    London  1851. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   21 

of  albumen.  The  continuance  of  life  is  indis- 
solubly  connected  with  its  presence  in  the 
blood,  that  is,  in  the  nutrient  fluid.  In  so 
far  as  the  notions  of  formation,  nutrition,  or 
the  nutritive  property  are  inseparable  from 
that  of  a  substance,  whose  properties  and 
composition  are  collected  in  the  word  albu- 
men; only  those  substances  are  in  a  strict 
sense,  nutritious  articles  of  food,  which  con- 
tain either  albumen,  or  a  substance  capable 
of  being  converted  into  albumen  (p.  346). 

The  "plastic  foods"  of  Liebig  were  the  pro- 
teins.   Accordingly  he  says  again: 

All  these  organized  tissues,  all  the  parts, 
which  in  any  way  manifest  force  in  the  body, 
are  derived  from  the  albumen  of  the  blood; 
all  the  albumen  of  the  blood  is  derived  from 
the  plastic  or  sanguigenous  constituents  of 
the  food,  whether  animal  or  vegetable.  It  is 
clear,  therefore,  that  the  plastic  constitu- 
ents of  food,  the  ultimate  source  of  which  is 
the   vegetable   kingdom,    are   the    conditions 


22    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

essential  to  all  production  or  manifestation 
of  force,  to  all  those  effects  which  the  animal 
organism  produces  by  means  of  its  organs  of 
sense,  thought,  and  motion  (p.  366). 

The  other  extreme  is  represented  by  the  modem 
so-called  "low  protein"  advocates.  From  the  de- 
bate of  this  topic  it  has  become  probable  that 
although  some  views  as  to  the  importance  of 
protein  in  the  dietary  have  been  exaggerated,  a 
liberal  factor  of  safety  must  be  allowed.  In  any 
event,  protein  has  lost  the  special  significance 
which  it  assumed  in  Liebig's  day  as  the  unique 
source  of  energy.  As  a  guide  in  the  consideration 
of  the  protein  supply  of  the  future  we  may  recall 
the  attitude  of  Professor  Rubner,  an  expert  in  the 
field  of  nutrition  study,  before  the  Fifteenth  Inter- 
national Congress  on  Hygiene  and  Demography 
at  Washington  in  1912: 

Nutrition  in  the  cities  has  at  all  times  a 
tendency  toward  refinement,  but  in  former 
times,  when  the  classes  lived  strictly  sepa- 
rate, the  food  materials  were  also  very  dif- 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   23 

ferent  within  the  city  walls.  The  food  of 
the  nobility  was  different  from  that  of  the 
middle  class,  and  the  latter  from  that  of  the 
poor  people.  Among  the  materials  success- 
fully used  in  the  culinary  art  a  high  place 
has  always  been  held  by  the  meat  of  mam- 
mals, fowls,  and  fishes.  These  meats  were 
the  chief  part  of  the  meal,  other  foods  of 
vegetable  origin,  as  salads  and  vegetables, 
sweets  and  flour  foods  being  added.  Bread 
remained  in  the  background.  The  traditions 
of  this  culinary  art  have  remained  the  same 
down  to  our  days.  This  diet  of  the  upper 
classes  is  the  only  one  which  provides  the 
pleasures  of  the  table,  it  is  rich  in  proteid 
and  fat,  it  is  not  voluminous,  does  not  over- 
burden the  stomach,  tends  less  to  obesity 
than  any  other  diet,  keeps  the  body  even  of 
a  lazy  man  in  good  condition,  and  does  not 
overwork  the  digestive  functions.  The  less 
well-to-do  reduce,  of  course,  the  amount  of 
meat,  but  they  use  in  its  place  bread  and 
potatoes.    This  is  called  a  mixed  diet.    When 


24  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

the  barriers  between  the  classes  fell,  the  mid- 
dle classes  gradually  rose  to  the  more  luxu- 
rious food  of  the  formerly  privileged  classes. 

It  is  a  fact  that  the  diet  of  the  well-to-do 
is  not  in  itself  physiologically  justified;  it 
is  not  even  healthy,  for,  on  account  of  false 
notions  of  the  strengthening  effect  of  meat, 
too  much  meat  is  used  by  young  and  old  and 
by  children,  and  this  is  harmful.  But  this 
meat  diet  is  publicly  sanctioned ;  it  is  found  in 
all  hotels,  it  has  become  international  and 
has  supplanted  almost  everywhere  the  char- 
acteristic local  culinary  art.  It  has  also 
been  adopted  in  countries  where  European 
culinary  art  was  unknown.  Long  ago  the 
medical  profession  started  an  opposition  to 
the  exaggerated  meat  diet,  long  before  the 
vegetarian  propaganda  was  started.  It  was 
maintained  that  flour-foods,  vegetables,  and 
fruit  should  be  eaten  in  place  of  the  over- 
large  quantities  of  meat. 

The  descendants  of  those  well-nourished 
classes  are,  on  account  of  many  influences. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   25 

especially  the  school  and  the  indoor  life,  not 
always  the  strongest  part  of  the  nation,  but 
since  in  recent  times  bodily  exercises  have 
become  general,  they  are  again  decidedly  in 
the  ascendency. 

The  sanitary  conditions  of  the  great  mass 
of  industrial  workers  and  their  children,  and 
of  people  of  very  small  earnings,  are  diiFer- 
ent.  Here  we  find  a  decided  deterioration 
of  the  body,  as  is  amply  shown  by  the  re- 
cruiting for  military  purposes.  In  spite  of 
continuous  migration  from  the  country  to 
the  cities,  conditions  are  little  changed.  The 
social  surroundings  of  a  great  city  are  de- 
cidedly unfavorable  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
strong  race.  Among  the  many  factors  which 
cause  this  decrease  of  bodily  efficiency  nutri- 
tion is  not  the  least. 

The  industrial  workers  coming  from  the 
country  to  the  city  cannot  well  get  along 
with  their  former  simple  diet,  because  the 
cheap  food  materials  which  are  easily  ob- 
tained, as  bread  and  potatoes,  contain  too 


26    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

little  proteid.  They  undoubtedly  need  an 
increase  of  proteid  material.  Neither  can 
they  find  in  the  city  the  food  conditions  to 
which  they  had  formerly  been  used;  but 
they  accommodate  themselves  rapidly  to  new 
conditions,  coming  into  the  new  surround- 
ings, as  they  usually  do,  without  a  family. 
Just  as,  under  the  doctrine  of  political  equal- 
ity, the  lower  classes  try  to  attain  the  luxu- 
rious table  of  the  well-to-do,  so  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  industrial  workers,  coming  from 
the  country  to  the  cities,  accommodate  them- 
selves to  the  new  dietary  forms. 

The  workingman  does  not  want  proteid, 
leguminous  food,  milk,  etc.,  to  improve  his 
vegetable  diet;  he  wants  simply  meat,  not 
because  he  needs  it,  but  because  it  is  for 
him  a  matter  of  pride  to  follow  as  best  he 
can  the  other  classes  in  his  diet.  The  diffi- 
culty is  that  the  cost  of  meat  is  considerably 
higher  than  in  the  country,  where  food  can 
usually  be  obtained  without  the  aid  of  deal- 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   27 


ers,  and  where  many  foodstuffs  are  raised  on 
one's  own  land. 


The  importance  of  the  conservation  of  protein 
had  led  to  numerous  investigations  of  the  economy 
of  this  foodstuff  which  need  not  be  discussed 
here/ 

Transportation  Facilities. — The  concentration 
of  population  in  restricted  areas  is  necessarily 
limited  by  the  possibilities  of  the  food  supply. 
The  latter  is  the  coroUary  of  finding  suitable 
accommodations  for  increasing  numbers.  Within 
less  than  a  century  nearly  every  region  of  the 
globe  has  been  tapped  by  railways  or  water-way 
facilities  to  permit  the  more  uniform  distribution 

7  The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  monographs  dealing 
with  some  aspects  of  this  topic:  Chittenden,  R.  H.:  Physio- 
logical Economy  in  Nutrition,  1904;  Chittenden,  R.  H.: 
The  Nutrition  of  Man,  1907;  McCay,  D.:  The  Protein  Ele- 
ment in  Nutrition,  1912;  Rubner,  M.:  Volksernahrungs- 
fragen,  1908;  Rubner,  M.:  Wandlungen  in  der  Volksernah- 
rung,  1913;  Hindhede,  M.:  Protein  and  Nutrition,  1913; 
Rubner,  M.:  Ueber  moderne  Ernahrungsreformen,  1914; 
Mendel,  L.  B.:  Theorien  des  Eiweissstoffwechsels  nebst 
einigen  praktischen  Konsequenzen  derselben,  Ergebnisse  der 
Physiologie,  1911,  xi,  418-525;  Mendel,  L.  B.:  Nutrition  and 
Growth.     Harvey  Society  Lectures,   1914-15. 


28  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

of  things.  The  competition  of  the  different  lines 
of  transportation  has  been  an  interesting  phase 
in  the  exchange  of  commodities,  among  which  food 
has  been  conspicuous.  The  end  is  not  in  sight ;  for 
with  the  added  possibility  of  preserving  foods  at 
reasonable  cost,  a  new  chance  for  distribution  has 
arisen.  American  wheat  has  long  traversed  a  con- 
tinent by  train  or  crossed  an  ocean  in  a  steamer's 
hold;  but  the  sight  of  Australian  meats  in  the 
London  market,  of  Californian  fruits  and  vege- 
tables in  Boston,  of  eggs  from  China  in  Chicago, 
or  of  Wisconsin  milk  in  Manila  was  reserved  for 
the  present  generation.  In  earlier  days  the  diet- 
ary habits  of  peoples  were  developed  on  the  basis 
of  the  native  products  of  the  soil.  Now,  when  the 
means  of  transportation  are  no  longer  primitive, 
specific  demands  can  readily  be  satisfied  by  impor- 
tation. This  is  particularly  exemplified  where 
certain  habits  of  taste  have  persisted  longer  than 
the  local  sources  of  supply. 

Customs  in  Diet. — To  one  who  has  given  little 
thought  to  the  subject,  the  dietary  habits  of  a 
community  or  nation  may  appear  as  something 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   29 

fairly  fixed  from  generation  to  generation.  This 
is,  however,  far  from  a  correct  view.  Adequate 
nutrition  may  be  exemplified  alike  among  the 
meat-  and  blubber-eating  Eskimos  and  the  strictly 
vegetarian  Hindoos.  But  particularly  where  the 
dietary  instincts  have  led  mankind  to  adopt  a 
more  diversified  mixed  ration  one  may  discover 
shifts  of  custom  and  changes  of  eating  habits 
within  comparatively  short  periods.  A  compre- 
hensive survey  of  this  feature  of  dietetics  and  an 
examination  of  the  underlying  causes  would  fur- 
nish interesting  physiological,  sociological,  and 
economic  details.  A  few  typical  illustrations  must 
suffice  to  indicate  these  interrelations  between 
customs  in  diet  and  the  food  supply. 

The  use  of  fresh  fruits  has  been  enormously  ex- 
tended among  the  progressive  peoples  of  temper- 
ate zones  within  the  past  two  decades.  Some  of 
these  food  products,  such  as  orchard  fruits,  have 
long  been  favorites  in  the  dietary  and  because  of 
their  superior  keeping  qualities  have  been  avail- 
able over  long  periods  of  the  year.  The  output 
of  orchard  fruits  has  kept  pace  with  the  growth 


30    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

of  population.  The  value  of  the  products  of  the 
orchard  in  the  United  States,  in  1840,  was  about 
$8,000,000;  a  recent  census  report  gives  the 
figure  $140,867,000.  Among  other  types  of 
fruits  proportionately  greater  increases  are 
noted.  "Small  fruits"  contributed  $30,000,000 
grapes,  $22,000,000;  citrus  fruits,  $23,000,000 
other  tropical  and  subtropical  fruits,  $2,000,000 
to  the  production  of  fruits  in  the  United  States  in 
1909.  Many  of  these,  like  the  orange  and  grape- 
fruit, have  become  prominent  in  the  diet  of  the 
well-to-do  because  of  the  readiness  with  which  they 
can  be  obtained  at  a  reasonable  price  everywhere 
during  most  of  the  year.  Science,  the  mechanic 
arts,  and  business  organization  have  combined  to 
revolutionize  the  distribution  and  marketing,  as 
one  may  learn  in  studying  the  work  of  the  Cali- 
fornia Fruit-Growers'  Exchange.  The  once  enor- 
mous losses  from  decay  have  been  greatly  reduced 
and  the  marketed  products  are  of  a  superior 
quality. 

There  is  a  physiological  justification  for  the 
increasing  prominence  of  fruits  in  the  diet  of  the 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   31 

better  classes  and  its  extension  throughout  all 
seasons  of  the  year.  With  the  growing  use  of 
highly  digestible  foods  and  the  exclusion  of  indi- 
gestible food  residues,  with  the  widespread  em- 
ployment of  milled  cereals  largely  freed  from  cor- 
tical parts,  with  the  tendency  to  exclude  the 
^'coarser"  vegetables  or  limit  their  inclusion  in  the 
menus  of  the  better  classes,  the  absence  of  "rough- 
age" in  the  diet  combined  with  other  features  of 
modern  living  helps  to  induce  habitual  constipa- 
tion in  certain  classes  of  society.  The  fruits  serve 
a  useful  purpose  in  counteracting  this  tendency 
by  promoting  the  movement  of  the  bowel — hence 
the  expression:  "An  apple  a  day  keeps  the  doctor 
away." 

The  familiar  adage  just  quoted  has  been  con- 
verted into  an  advertising  slogan  in  some  of  the 
apple-growing  states  of  the  West.  This  leads  me 
to  call  attention  to  the  potent  force  of  advertising 
in  creating  a  demand  for  food  products  of  most 
varied  sorts.  The  same  agency  which  has  created 
a  nation-wide  mania  for  chewing-gum  and  has 
initiated  in  all  ranks  of  society  a  senseless  habit 


32    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

of  mastication  which  was,  until  a  few  years  ago, 
limited  to  the  overlooked  improprieties  of  child- 
hood, has  been  reflected  in  the  food  market.  The 
ready-to-eat  "breakfast  foods"  in  highly  adver- 
tised, neat  and  attractive  packages  have  replaced 
the  less  expensive  cereals  long  sold  in  bulk.  The 
change  is  not  merely  one  of  the  container  or  pack- 
age; the  contents  no  longer  are  the  same.  Oat- 
meal, for  example,  has  lost  some  of  its  former 
popularity  as  a  breakfast  dish  through  the  inroad 
of  cornflakes  and  wheat  foods.  The  breakfast 
staples  have  been  changed  by  the  modern  adver- 
tiser; and  illustrations  of  his  ingenuity  might  be 
extended  to  include  numerous  food  products.  Ex- 
cept from  the  standpoint  of  extreme  economy  the 
innovations  have  as  a  rule  been  wholesome  and 
usually  in  the  interest  of  food  hygiene.  The 
purity  of  the  products  has  not  infrequently  sur- 
passed the  honesty  of  the  advertisement. 

Most  of  us  can  recall  the  days  when  meat  or 
eggs,  or  both,  formed  an  indispensable  part  of  the 
early  meal,  in  the  United  States.  At  present  there 
are  signs  everywhere,  at  least  among  those  classes 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   33 

which  are  not  engaged  in  more  vigorous  muscular 
work,  of  a  simplification  of  this  meal  by  the  exclu- 
sion of  meat  and  the  substitution  of  cereals  and 
fruits.  This  is  an  approach  to  the  traditional 
breakfast  of  continental  Europe.  It  is  not  easy 
to  analyze  the  underlying  causes  for  such  dietary 
changes;  they  are  not  solely  physiological  nor 
economic  in  origin.  Rubner  has  remarked  that 
sometimes  revolutions  occur  in  the  field  of  popular 
nutrition.  The  introduction  of  the  potato  in 
many  extensive  regions  is  cited  as  an  illustration. 
It  might  be  supposed  that  bread,  "the  staff  of 
life,"  remains  essentially  what  it  has  been  in  days 
gone  by.  This  food  product,  however,  furnishes 
an  example  of  the  evolution  of  a  food  industry. 
Bread  making  is  gradually  becoming  a  factory 
problem.  The  magnitude  of  this  may  be  appre- 
ciated from  the  statement  that  the  baking  indus- 
try is  today  capitalized  at  over  $270,000,000; 
yet  housekeepers  still  make  70  per  cent  of  the 
product   used.^      With   increasing   efficiency   and 

8  These  statistics  and  related  statements  are  taken  from 
Duncan,  R.  K.:  Some  Chemical  Problems  of  Today.  New 
York,  1911.     Chapter  on  Bread. 


34  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

range  of  distribution  the  use  of  bakers'  bread  is 
certain  to  increase;  just  as  butter,  pickles,  mus- 
tard, etc.,  are  no  longer  exclusively  home-made 
products.  As  soon  as  larger  corporate  interests 
become  involved  in  the  food  industries,  altered 
methods  of  manufacture  are  likely  to  be  intro- 
duced when  they  seem  both  profitable  and  feasible. 
Food  innovations  are  not  readily  introduced  in 
the  home;  but  in  the  factory  they  frequently  be- 
come questions  of  dollars  and  cents.  In  the  manu- 
facture of  baked  goods  the  cost  of  production  has 
been  modified  by  the  substitution  of  dried  milks 
for  fresh  milk,  and  of  vegetable  fats  for  the  more 
expensive  butter.  The  manufacture  of  yeast  has 
become  specialized  into  an  important  industry 
which  reacts  upon  the  public  with  the  cleverly 
advertised  admonition  to  "eat  more  bread." 

Wheat  has  unique  properties  which  adapt  it  to 
the  production  of  bread  as  we  now  know  it.  Other 
seeds  are  competing  for  recognition.  New  "flours" 
are  proposed.  The  proso  and  kaoliang  flours 
already  mentioned  are  among  them.  Even  cotton 
seed  "flour"  is  clamoring  for  recognition.     When 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   35 

glutenous  adjuvants  are  supplied  to  cereals  which 
lack  them,  and  when  more  science  is  infused  into 
the  art  of  baking,  new  bakery  products  are  likely 
to  arise. 

The  use  of  fats  in  the  diet  is  doubtless  increas- 
ing in  the  United  States.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  consumption  of  butter  alone  reaches  23  to  24 
grams  (3/4  to  4/5  of  an  ounce)  or  approximately 
200  calories  per  person  per  day.  An  inspection 
of  the  dietaries  in  the  public  establishments  of 
half  a  century  ago,  as  they  are  reported  in  the 
treatises  of  that  period,^  reveals  the  important 
part  taken  by  bread  in  the  regimen.  Butter  was 
often  entirely  omitted  in  the  daily  allowances  of 
asylums,  prisons,  military  groups,  and  other  typi- 
cal institutions.  Frequently  the  diet  lists  of  those 
days  call  for  bread  and  molasses  or  bread  and 
milk.  Bread  without  butter  or  some  other  fat  is 
now  the  rarity,  at  any  rate  in  American  homes. 
Despite  the  discouragement  which  the   oleomar- 

»  For  example,  in  Pereira,  J. :  A  Treatise  on  Food  and 
Diet.    New  York  1843. 


36    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

garine  industry  has  received  from  legislation,  oft- 
times  unwarranted,  the  use  of  butter  substitutes 
is  spreading  as  the  price  of  the  original  product 
is  increasing.  Here  too  the  advertising  bill-boards 
are  already  pointing  out  the  future  way.  Butter 
substitutes  are  not  only  used  directly  in  the  meal, 
but  are  finding  a  wide  field  of  application  in  the 
cooking  and  baking  processes  of  the  kitchen. 

Another  change  in  diet  customs  is  seen  in  the 
growing  use  of  cheese  in  American  homes.  This 
wholesome  article  has  long  been  appreciated  at 
higher  value  in  European  countries  than  in  our 
own.  Nuts  and  nut  foods  are  becoming  more 
popular,  in  part  as  the  result  of  the  modern  vege- 
tarian propaganda  which  recommends  them  as 
"meat  substitutes."  The  value  of  the  peanut  crop 
is  about  $20,000,000.  Sherman  remarks  that  "to 
speak  of  nuts  as  'meat  substitute'  is  natural  under 
present  conditions  and  reflects  the  prominence 
which  has  been  given  to  meat  and  the  casual  way 
in  which  nuts  have  been  regarded  for  some  genera- 
tions.     Looking   at   the   matter   in   evolutionary 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   37 

perspective  it  might  be  more  logical  to  speak  of 
meats  as  'nut  substitute'  instead." 

The  current  extensive  use  of  sucrose  in  the 
form  of  refined  cane  sugar  or  beet  sugar  exem- 
plifies what  the  cheapening  of  an  article  of  com- 
merce can  accomplish  in  the  field  of  diet.  Al- 
though sucrose  has  a  considerable  fuel  value  in 
the  organism  its  dietary  use  is  primarily  dictated 
by  considerations  of  flavor.  Opinions  are  occa- 
sionally divided  as  to  the  place  of  this  sugar  in 
the  dietary.  It  seems  as  if  the  extremes  of  refine- 
ment which  have  made  commercial  sucrose  in  a 
chemical  sense  the  purest  of  all  purchasable  food- 
stuffs had  exceeded  all  requirements  of  nutrition 
or  dictates  of  the  palate.  The  addition  of  a  blue 
dyestuff  to  give  a  white  appearance  to  the  final 
product  represents  one  of  the  psychological  values 
which  are  often  more  ridiculous  than  costly. 
Surely  for  most  uses  the  artificially  colored  white 
sugar  has  nothing  except  a  false  standard  to 
recommend  it  in  place  of  the  natural  cream- 
colored  sugar. 

It  is  likely  that  the  succulent  vegetables  will 


38    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

play  a  larger  part  in  the  table  of  American  house- 
holds. Dr.  C.  F.  Langworthy,  Chief  of  the  Office 
of  Home  Economics  in  the  States  Relations  Ser- 
vice at  Washington,  says: 

One  of  the  marked  differences  between  the 
daily  fare  today  and  that  of  fifty  years  ago 
consists  in  the  increased  supply  of  green  and 
succulent  vegetables,  a  class  of  food  used, 
as  their  names  imply,  for  their  refreshing 
and  palatable  qualities  more  than  for  their 
total  nutritive  value.  Not  many  years  ago 
the  winter's  supply  of  vegetables  in  all 
southern  countries  was  limited  to  root  crops 
and  a  few  other  staples,  such  as  onions  and 
cabbage,  which  could  be  kept  in  the  cellar 
in  comparatively  good  condition.  New  and 
improved  varieties,  better  methods  of  culti- 
vation, improvements  in  transportation  and 
storage,  the  greater  development  of  market 
gardening  under  glass,  and  the  development 
of  the  canning  and  preserving  industry,  have 
made  succulent  vegetables  common  through- 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   39 

out  the  year  and  available  in  one  form  or 
another  for  almost  every  family.^ 


10 


The  popularity  of  green  vegetables  is  begin- 
ning to  be  reflected  in  the  canning  industries 
where  the  variety  of  such  products  is  being  ex- 
tended rapidly  and  the  canning  process  has  al- 
ready developed  into  an  important  enterprise. 
To  the  more  familiar  commercial  lists  including 
tomatoes,  corn,  peas,  and  beans,  there  are  being 
added  asparagus,  beets,  okra,  pumpkin,  sweet 
potato,  rhubarb,  sauerkraut,  spinach,  and  squash. 
The  extent  of  this  canning  industry  and  its 
growth  in  a  single  decade  is  shown  statistically,  as 
follows : 

10  Lang  worthy,  C.  F.:  Green  Vegetables  and  Their  Uses 
in  the  Diet.    American  Food  Journal,  October  15,  1912,  p.  5. 


40  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

Extent  of  the  Canning  Industry  in  the 
United  States^^ 

Quality  and  Value  of  Foods  Canned,  1899,  1909 

1909  1899 

Cases  Value  Cases  Value 

Vegetables 32,752,469  |51,568,914  19,323,730  $28,734,598 

Tomatoes 12,909,986  18,747,941  8,700,538  13,666,560 

Corn 7,451,265  10,332,136  6,336,984  8,191,383 

Peas 5,901,703  10,247,363  2,543,722  4,465,673 

Beans 3,392,864  6,013,098  1,493,517  2,025,123 

Asparagus 228,559  1,975,775 

Pumpkin 440,303  576,043  138,078  202,404 

Sweet   potatoes  347,286  531,651  83,526  124,245 

Another 2,080,503  3,144,907  27,365  59,210 

Fruits 5,518,999  12,938,474  4,467,817  11,311,062 

Peaches 1,484,808  3,753,698  1,449,356  4,283,165 

Apples 1,205,742  1,898,720  645,762  1,125,119 

Apricots 630,185  1,825,311  531,648  1,538,252 

Pears 637,782  1,833,214  672,485  2,188,201 

Berries 815,851  1,754,927  600,419  1,092,975 

Cherries 390,351  1,019,013  114,367  307,788 

All  others 354,280  853,591  453,780  730,562 

The  indirect  effects  of  the  anti-alcohol  cam- 
paign now  vigorously  conducted  in  many  coun- 
tries are  seen  in  the  stimulation  of  trade  in  so- 
il Bitting,  A.  W.:  Methods  Followed  in  the  Com- 
mercial Canning  of  Foods.  U.  S.  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, Bulletin  196,  Washington  1915. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   41 

called  temperance  drinks.  It  comes  as  a  surprise 
to  an  "old  timer"  to  see  buttermilk  retailed  over 
the  bar  of  the  American  saloon.  The  grape  juice 
industry  has  grown  by  leaps  and  bounds ;  and  this 
alcohol- free  natural  product  is  veritably  becoming 
one  of  the  national  drinks.  I  am  informed  from 
expert  sources  that  the  production  of  American 
unfermented  grape  juice  in  the  year  1914 
amounted  to  4,593,750  gallons  in  the  Chautauqua 
belt  alone.  Other  fruits  also  are  likely  to  figure 
in  the  new  field  of  use  here  opened.  It  is  stated 
that  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  apples  grown  in 
American  orchards  never  enter  into  the  food  sup- 
ply of  the  nation.  This  has  been  a  stimulus  to 
the  food  conservationists  to  transform  the  unused 
materials  into  new  forms  of  food.  Apple  sirup 
and  concentrated  cider  have  been  suggested  as 
new  products  for  utilizing  surplus  and  cull 
apples.^^  The  expert  of  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture remarks : 

12  Gore,  H.  C:  Apple  Sirup  and  Concentrated  Cider: 
New  Products  for  Utilizing  Surplus  and  CuU  Apples. 
Yearbook  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  1914, 
Washington  1915,  p.  227. 


42  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

What  the  commercial  future  of  the  two 
products  will  be  remains  to  be  determined 
under  actual  marketing  conditions.  The 
department  has  every  confidence  in  the  feasi- 
bility of  making  the  two  products  where  the 
apple  supply  and  the  manufacturing  con- 
ditions are  suitable.  The  development  of 
this  infant  industry  must  now  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  the  progressive  American  manufac- 
turer. A  process  which  will  make  pure, 
fresh  cider  available  as  a  summer  drink  at 
our  soda  fountains  should  open  up  a  new  and 
valuable  market  for  the  juice  of  surplus 
apples.  Whether  young  America  will  eat 
apple  sirup  on  his  bread  and  his  mother  use 
it  in  her  kitchen  must  be  decided  by  the 
American  people. 

Similar  considerations  are  being  applied  to 
other  fruits  now  wasted. 

The  "dairy  lunch"  rooms  of  our  cities  and 
larger  villages  represent  an  innovation  in  dietary 
practice.  The  dinner  pail  and  the  lunch  basket 
filled   with   home-made   food  have   given   way   to 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   43 

"ready-made  meals."  To  one  group  of  persons 
the  "lunch  rooms"  represent  a  welcomed  escape 
from  the  more  expensive  luxuries  of  the  conven- 
tional restaurant;  likewise  a  possibility  of  sub- 
stituting old-fashioned  pastry  and  cereal  dishes 
for  the  usual  dining  room  meal  rich  in  meat.  To 
another,  increasing  class,  however,  they  oifer  a 
means  of  reducing  the  labor  of  the  household  by 
the  device  of  a  public  eating  place.  The  recent 
interesting  study  of  a  familiar  chain  of  these 
"dairy"  restaurants,  published  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Sage  Institute  by  Gephart  and  Lusk,^^ 
show  that  the  popular  sandwich  meal  of  the  lunch 
counters  is  by  no  means  a  cheap  diet  for  the  work- 
ing classes  who  have  a  limited  allowance  to  spend 
for  food.  Attractive  as  the  highly  profitable 
service  of  the  "dairy  lunch"  may  be,  with  its  con- 
genial environmental  features,  it  cannot  compete 
with  "home  cooking"  from  the  standpoint  of  econ- 
omy. This  lesson  needs  to  be  brought  home  to  a 
nation  which  is  continually  discussing  the  high 

13  Gephart,  F.  C,  and  Lusk,  G.:  Analysis  and  Cost  of 
Ready-to-serve  Foods.  Press  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  Chicago  1915. 


44  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

cost  of  living.     Domestic  arts  should  not  become 
relegated  entirely  to  corporate  enterprise. 

Changing  Social  and  Industrial  Conditions  and 
Other  Economic  and  Hygienic  Factors. — ^Rubner 
has  pointed  out  an  interesting  effect  of  com- 
merce in  food  on  nutrition. 

"Most  conservative  as  to  the  food  ques- 
tion," he  remarks,  "is  the  farmer,  though  in 
the  country,  too,  many  changes  are  taking 
place.  He  has  frequent  contact  with  the 
city,  but  he  has  still  plenty  of  food  material 
though  not  always  quite  suitable  to  the  pur- 
pose. I  have  noticed  a  very  unfavorable 
influence  of  urban  food  requirements  on  the 
milk  producing  districts  of  some  regions  of 
Switzerland  and  Germany,  which  is  so  char- 
acteristic that  it  deserves  consideration.  The 
milk  producing  regions  of  the  Bavarian 
highlands  and  of  Switzerland  had  formerly 
an  extremely  healthy,  strong,  and  temperate 
population.  Milk  was  largely  used  as  a 
food,  and  the  excess  of  production  was 
placed  on  the  market.    In  the  course  of  years 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   45 

the  communities  gradually  established  cen- 
tral dairies  in  which  the  fat  is  withdrawn 
from  the  milk  by  means  of  centrifugal 
machines  to  produce  cream  and  butter.  The 
impoverished  milk  is  partly  returned  to  the 
farmers.  The  milk  producers  are  paid  in 
cash  for  their  product,  but  a  poor  and  insuf- 
ficient food  takes  now  the  place  of  a  former 
healthy  one.  The  money  now  goes  to  the 
saloons.  The  potato  conquers  a  new  terri- 
tory. Instead  of  the  butter  which  was  for- 
merly used,  cheap  fats  are  now  bought;  in 
short,  the  change  of  diet  is  exactly  such  as 
we  find  with  the  poorer  working  population 
in  the  cities.  The  effects  are  exactly  the 
same.  Physical  deterioration  in  such  dis- 
tricts becomes  more  and  more  pronounced, 
reaching  finally  a  low  level.  This  is  a  very 
serious  condition,  which  attracts  attention 
and  which  must  be  combated  by  all  possible 
means." 

Rubner  believes,  further,  that  the  industrializa- 
tion of  nations  is  attended  by  a  change  in  body 


46    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

weight,  not  because  the  race  has  changed  in  itself, 
but  because  the  nutritive  conditions  have  changed 
for  a  large  number  of  laboring  people  through 
migration  to  the  cities.  Today  only  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  industrial  establishments  are  in 
rural  communities,  where  the  living  conditions  are 
favorable.  The  problem  of  the  under-fed  is  thus 
closely  related  to  the  distribution  of  the  food 
supply. 

The  present  European  war  is  affording  an  op- 
portunity to  study  the  relation  of  the  food  sup- 
ply to  unexpected  economic  and  territorial  con- 
ditions. From  the  standpoint  of  Germany  the 
situation  is  unique  in  view  of  the  exclusion  of 
food  normally  obtained  in  large  amounts  from 
abroad.  Russia,  America,  and  other  countries 
have  hitherto  furnished  wheat,  rice,  butter,  lard, 
eggs,  and  many  other  foods,  along  with  cruder 
feeds  which  in  turn  were  applied  to  animal  pro- 
duction. These  sources  have  been  threatened  or 
entirely  cut  off.  With  real  scientific  acumen  the 
German  nation  has  started  a  public  propaganda 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   47 

of  advice  intended  to  meet  the  situation  thus 
unexpectedly  created.^*  The  export  of  native 
products,  such  as  sugar  and  rye,  is  to  be  re- 
stricted; the  feeding  of  materials  suitable  for 
human  consumption  to  cattle  is  to  be  greatly 
decreased  and  conservation  of  food  values  ordi- 
narily lost  in  the  processes  of  conversion  into 
animal  tissue  accomplished;  unjustifiable  waste  is 
to  be  avoided  not  only  in  the  trade  at  large  but 
in  the  individual  kitchen.  The  elaborateness  of 
the  investigation  is  indicated  by  such  details  as 
the  reminders  that  20  grams  of  fat  per  capita  are 
lost  in  the  sewage  waste  of  Berlin  every  day,  and 
that  this  ought  to  be  prevented.  The  people  are 
assured,  on  the  authority  of  eminent  scientists, 
that  they  need  not  fear  intelligently  instituted 
changes  of  dietary  regime  as  something  inimical 
to  health.  The  laws  of  nutrition  and  suitable 
dietetic    advice    are    being   proclaimed    and    dis- 

14  Eltzbacher,  P. :  Die  Deutsche  Volksernahrung  und 
der  Englische  Aushungerungsplan.  Fr.  Vieweg  &  Sohn, 
Braunschweig  1915. 


48    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

tributed  in  popular  form.^^  The  more  liberal  use 
of  plant  products  (rich  in  carbohydrates)  in 
place  of  meats  (rich  in  proteins  and  fats)  is 
urged.  As  a  move  in  the  direction  of  economy  in 
nutrition  the  gradual  substitution  of  the  regimen 
of  South  German  households  in  place  of  the  exces- 
sive meat  diet  of  the  northern  provinces  is  urged. 
Even  a  cook-book  for  war  times  is  freely  supplied.^^ 

The  experience  of  the  commissary  department 
of  the  United  States  Army  in  Cuba  during  the 
campaign  of  1898  has  taught  the  mistake  not 
only  of  disregarding  local  conditions,  but  also  of 
failing  to  grasp  important  dietary  principles  and 
to  inculcate  them  where  the  lessons  are  needed. 

No  presentation  of  the  problems  of  the  food 
supply  would  be  complete  without  an  appreciation 
of  what  the  growing  science  of  physiology  and 
the  chemistry  of  foods  is  contributing  to  mankind. 

15  For  example,  in  pamphlets  such  as  "Ernahrung  in 
der  Kriegszeit,"  ein  Ratgeber  von  Prof.  Dr.  Paul  Eltz- 
bacher,  Frau  Hedwig  Heyl,  Prof.  Dr.  Carl  Oppenheimer, 
Prof.  Dr.  Max  Rubner  und  Prof.  Dr.  Nathan  Zuntz. 
Braunschweig  1915. 

16  For  example,  the  "Kriegskochbuch"  von  Frau  Hedwig 
Heyl.    Berlin  1915. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   49 

The  calorie-idea  in  nutrition,  the  outcome  of  an 
understanding  of  the  transformation  of  energy 
in  the  living  body,  has  been  fruitful  in  more  ways 
than  one.  It  has  taught  people  to  think  of  the 
uses  of  food  from  a  more  rational  standpoint  and 
has  furnished  an  intelligible  basis  for  constructive 
institutional  dietetics  as  well  as  the  nutrition  of 
the  individual.  Food  is  beginning  to  be  regarded 
as  fuel  for  the  human  organism — something  that 
must  be  provided  in  determinable  amounts.  Mal- 
nutrition and  undernutrition  have  received  a  new 
popular  significance  in  the  discussion  of  human 
efficiency. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  limitations 
of  the  calorie-idea  in  nutrition  or  of  some  of  the 
current  conceptions  of  the  role  of  the  individual 
nutrients — the  proteins,  fats,  carbohydrates,  and 
inorganic  salts.  There  is  a  well-founded  growing 
belief  that  an  important  part  in  nutrition  is 
played  by  substances  which  are  not  identical  with 
the  familiar  foodstuffs  mentioned  and  which,  de- 
spite the  minimal  amounts  thereof  present  in  the 
diet,  may  nevertheless  be  indispensable  for  growth 


50  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

and  the  maintenance  of  life.  They  have  been 
called  "accessory  diet  factors"  or  "vitamins."  We 
may  conceive  of  them  as  stimulating  certain  physi- 
ological processes  and  as  essential  to  certain 
functions. 

The  lubricant  is  quite  as  important  to  a  machine 
as  is  the  energy- furnishing  fuel.  So  these  diet 
accessories  may  have  a  peculiar  usefulness.  Some 
of  them  are  believed  to  be  easily  impaired  by  heat ; 
in  the  language  of  the  chemist,  they  may  be  ther- 
molabile.  Hence  the  use  of  heat  for  preserving 
or  sterilizing  foods  suggests  new  difficulties. 
They  may  sometimes  be  lost  in  the  wastes  of  the 
modern  technical  processes,  as  in  the  milling  of 
cereals.  This  has  been  demonstrated  in  the  case 
of  "polished"  rice.  They  may  be  sensitive  to 
other  agencies  involved  in  the  change  from  fresh 
to  salted  or  "prepared"  or  preserved  foods. 

These  topics  represent  the  border  line  of  our 
knowledge  of  today.  Enough  facts  are  known, 
however,  to  justify  the  interest  which  the  subject 
is  receiving.  Scurvy  has  long  been  recognized 
as  a  disease  related  to  diet,  and  the  antiscorbutic 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   51 

and  curative  virtues  of  certain  food  products  like 
lemon  juice  were  early  learned  by  experience.  To 
these  so-called  "deficiency  diseases,"  beri-beri  and 
possibly  pellagra,  rickets,  and  Barlow's  disease 
may  be  added.  I  have  discussed  special  features 
of  this  question  elsewhere.^^  They  help  to  ex- 
plain the  occasional  failure  of  one-sided  dietaries, 
and  possibly  the  incidence  of  disease  in  groups  of 
people  living  through  ignorance  under  restricted 
conditions  of  diet,  in  institutions,  on  expeditions, 
on  shipboard,  during  famine,  and  sometimes  amid 
plenty. 

The  danger,  if  there  be  such,  of  a  lack  of  unrec- 
ognized diet  accessories  is  probably  greatest  in 
the  exclusive  use  of  "artificial"  foods  which  have 
experienced  extensive  alterations  in  the  course  of 
their  commercial  preparation.  In  the  present 
stage  of  our  knowledge,  variety  of  food,  includ- 
ing fresh  foods  of  many  descriptions,  may  be  wel- 
comed   on    this    ground    alone.      Canned    goods, 

17  Mendel,  L.  B.:  Nutrition  and  Growth.  The  Harvey 
Society  Lectures,  1914-15.  Also  Journal  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  May  8,  1915,  p.  1539.  The  literature 
of  the  subject  is  presented  there  in  some  detail. 


52  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

glucose,  margarine,  refined  sugar,  highly  milled 
cereals — in  themselves  skillfully  produced  speci- 
mens of  modern  technical  progress — should  be 
supplemented  with  fresh  foods  for  safety  until  our 
knowledge  has  grown  to  supersede  the  uncertainty 
of  present-day  ignorance  about  unappreciated  de- 
ficiencies of  the  diet.  If  the  factory  and  organ- 
ized business  have  introduced  "artificial"  pro- 
ducts, modern  industrial  organization  and  trans- 
portation have  likewise  increased  the  possibilities 
of  physiological  liberality  in  diet.  The  studies  of 
the  past  few  years  on  the  physiology  and  chem- 
istry of  the  ripening  of  fruits  is  only  one  indica- 
tion of  how  science  is  enlarging  the  possibilities 
of  the  food  supply  through  an  understanding  of 
underlying  factors.  Useful  investigations  on  the 
date,  the  banana,  the  apple,  and  other  fruits  have 
already  been  instituted  by  our  government. 

The  recent  progress  in  the  physiological  chem- 
istry of  the  proteins  illustrates  a  trend  that  is 
likely  to  affect  feeding  practices  in  the  future. 
The  protein  molecule  is  composed  of  a  group  of 
unlike  chemical  units,  many  of  which  appear  to 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   53 

be  indispensable  for  the  nutritive  functions.^®  The 
animal  body  cannot  construct  all  of  these  syn- 
thetically, hence  it  is  dependent  upon  a  supply 
thereof  in  the  diet.  The  proteins  of  common  foods 
furnish  unlike  yields  of  these  essential  units  or 
tissue  "building  stones."  It  is  accordingly  be- 
coming apparent  that  a  well-selected  ration  must 
furnish  these  in  both  quantitative  and  qualita- 
tive sufficiency.  Corn  and  the  by-products  of  the 
maize  kernel  are  notably  inadequate  for  good 
feeding  results  unless  they  are  supplemented  by 
other  protein-containing  foods.  The  relative 
economy  of  the  addition  of  supplementary  pro- 
teins, such  as  are  present  in  dried  blood  or  milk 
products,  to  a  ration  that  is  inexpensive,  but 
inefficient  by  itself,  suggests  new  standards  in  our 
feeding  practices.  A  small  addition  of  an  ade- 
quate protein  may  be  far  more  advantageous  for 
producing  gains  in  animal  husbandry  than  large 
amounts  of  cheaper  proteins  which  supplement  the 

18  For  a  detailed  discussion  of  this  subject  consult 
Underbill,  F.  P.:  Tbe  Pbysiology  of  tbe  Amino  Acids. 
Yale  University  Press  1915. 


54    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

deficiency  of  the  basal  ration  less  well.^^  Our 
Agricultural  Experiment  Stations  are  becoming 
alive  to  the  opportunities  here  opened.  Fodder 
analysis  has  taken  a  new  turn.^^  It  is  probable 
that  protein  feeding  in  the  future  will  be  based  on 
the  known  chemical  structure  of  the  feeds  quite  as 
much  as  on  the  results  of  past  feeding  experiments. 

19  Cf.  Osborne,  T.  B.,  and  Mendel,  L.  B.:  Feeding 
Experiments  Relating  to  the  Nutritive  Value  of  the  Pro- 
teins of  Maize.  Journal  of  Biological  Chemistry,  1913, 
xiv,  p.  xxxi;  Nutritive  Properties  of  Proteins  of  the  Maize 
Kernel.  Journal  of  Biological  Chemistry,  1914,  xviii,  1; 
Osborne,  T.  B.:  The  Nutritive  Value  of  the  Proteins  of 
Maize.  Science,  1913,  xxxvii,  185;  Osborne,  T.  B.,  and 
Mendel,  L.  B.:  The  Comparative  Nutritive  Value  of  Cer- 
tain Proteins  in  Growth,  and  the  Problem  of  the  Protein 
Minimum.  Journal  of  Biological  Chemistry,  1915,  xx,  351; 
Protein  Minima  for  Maintenance.    Ibid.,  1915,  xxii,  241. 

20  Cf.  Nollau,  E.  H.:  The  Amino-acid  Content  of  Certain 
Commercial  Feeding  Stuffs  and  Other  Sources  of  Protein. 
Journal  of  Biological  Chemistry,  1915,  xxi,  611;  Grindley, 
H.  S.,  Joseph,  W.  E.,  and  Slater,  M.  E.:  The  Quantitative 
Determination  of  the  Amino-acids  of  Feeding  Stuffs  by  the 
Van  Slyke  Method.  Journal  of  the  American  Chemical 
Society,  1915,  xxxvii,  1778;  Hart,  E.  B.,  and  Bentley,  W.  H.: 
The  Character  of  the  Water-soluble  Nitrogen  of  Some 
Common  Feedingstuffs.  Journal  of  Biological  Chemistry, 
1915,  xxii,  477;  Buckner,  G.  D.,  Nollau,  E.  H.,  and  Kastle, 
J.  H.:  The  Feeding  of  Young  Chicks  on  Grain  Mixtures  of 
High  and  Low  Lysine  Content,  American  Journal  of 
Physiology,  1915,  xxxix,  162. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   55 

Here,  as  so  often  before,  the  investigations  of 
what  is  sometimes  contemptuously  referred  to  as 
"pure"  science  have  furnished  results  of  great 
importance  to  practical  nutrition.  Sir  William 
Crookes,  whose  forecast  of  the  failing  wheat  sup- 
ply has  been  referred  to,  could  scarcely  foresee 
that  the  progress  of  physiological  chemistry 
might  in  itself  nullify  the  contentions  which  he 
vigorously  defended. 

A  corollary  of  a  better  understanding  of  the 
principles  involved  in  the  field  of  human  nutrition 
is  the  improvement  of  household  science  and  the 
domestic  arts.  Herein  lies  the  significance  of  the 
notable  "home  economics  movement"  of  the  pres- 
ent time.  Nutrition  and  its  relation  to  the  food 
supply  is  in  no  small  measure  a  problem  of  the 
home.  Just  as  the  lessons  of  modern  science  are 
permeating  the  practices  of  up-to-date  agricul- 
ture, so  they  ought  to  influence  and  modify  the 
performance  of  the  household.  The  latter  has 
been  described  as  a  social  institution  employing 
certain  material  agencies  which  include  the  provi- 
sion of  food  and  clothing.     Its  relations  to  other 


56  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

social  institutions  are  manifold.  Upon  industry, 
for  example,  the  household  exerts  an  influence  by 
maintaining  the  physical  vigor  and  efficiency  of 
the  worker ;  and  industry,  in  turn,  affects  the  home 
by  the  character  of  the  supplies  which  it  furnishes. 
We  are  told  that  the  household  is  the  ultimate 
agency  in  the  distribution  of  economic  wealth  to 
individuals.^^  What  the  wage-earner  really  se- 
cures and  the  wife  and  children  secure,  depend 
upon  the  efficiency  with  which  the  household  turns 
the  wage-income  into  economic  good,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  supplements  it  by  the  income-equiva- 
lent of  household  work.  The  contribution  of  pro- 
ductive household  work  is  too  little  emphasized. 
The  home  can  become  responsible  for  malnutrition 
and  insanitary  living.  An  appreciation  of  food 
costs,  of  efficient  marketing,  of  the  "casual  se- 
quence of  food  from  the  farm  to  the  dining 
room,"  of  the  preparation  of  food  for  the  table, 
surely  is  of  fundamental  import  in  every  home. 
The  culinary  art,  upon  which  so  much  may  de- 

21  Cf.  Andrews,  B.  R.:  A  Course  in  Household  Econom- 
ics.   Journal  of  Home  Economics,  February,  1913,  p.  26. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   57 

pend,  is  in  danger  of  deteriorating  in  the  homes 
of  this  country.  The  admonition  to  "cook  at 
home"  should  be  passed  on  to  the  less  well-to-do 
classes  and  the  education  of  their  young  in  the 
applications  of  domestic  science  should  be  warmly 
defended.  No  baker's  bread  equals  the  best  home- 
made product.  Too  few  women  of  the  working 
classes  are  equipped  to  meet  the  demands  which  the 
home  should  properly  make  upon  them. 

Many  years  ago  Liebig  wrote,  in  his  Familiar 
Letters  on  Chemistry : 

Among  all  the  arts  known  to  man,  there 
is  none  which  enjoys  a  juster  appreciation, 
and  the  products  of  which  are  more  univer- 
sally admired,  than  that  which  is  concerned 
in  the  preparation  of  our  food.  Led  by  an 
instinct,  which  has  almost  reached  the  dig- 
nity of  conscious  knowledge,  as  the  unerring 
guide,  and  by  the  sense  of  taste,  which  pro- 
tects the  health,  the  experienced  cook,  with 
respect  to  the  choice,  the  admixture,  and  the 
preparation  of  food,  has  made  acquisitions 
surpassing  all  that  chemical  and  physiologi- 


58  CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

cal  science  has  done  in  regard  to  the  doc- 
trine or  theory  of  nutrition.  In  soup  and 
meat  sauces,  he  imitates  the  gastric  juice; 
and  by  the  cheese  which  closes  the  banquet, 
he  assists  the  action  of  the  dissolved  epithe- 
lium of  the  stomach.  The  table,  supplied 
with  dishes,  appears  to  the  observer  like  a 
machine,  the  parts  of  which  are  harmoni- 
ously fitted  together,  and  so  arranged,  that, 
when  brought  into  action,  a  maximum  of 
effect  may  be  obtained  by  means  of  them. 
The  able  culinary  artist  accompanies  the 
sanguigenous  matter  with  those  which  pro- 
mote the  process  of  solution  and  sanguifica- 
tion, in  due  proportion;  he  avoids  all  kinds 
of  unnecessary  stimuli,  such  as  do  not  act 
in  restoring  the  equilibrium ;  and  he  provides 
the  due  nourishment  for  the  child  as  well  as 
the  old  man,  as  well  as  for  both  sexes. 

Even  Liebig,  the  great  scientist,  could  not  ade- 
quately visualize  the  application  of  science  in  the 
kitchen.  Man  no  longer  depends  upon  his 
instincts  alone  for  guidance  in  the  affairs  of  life; 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   59 

otherwise  progress  would  indeed  be  slow.  Instruc- 
tion in  domestic  science  ought  to  become  a  means 
of  solving  the  problems  of  applied  nutrition;  and 
the  best  interests  of  the  home — economic  as  well 
as  social — call  for  better  domestic  service,  a  dis- 
cipline into  which  woman  will  enter  "mit  Lust  und 
Liebe." 

We  have  seen  that  the  problem  of  food  supply 
is  not  one  which  can  be  dismissed  by  the  social 
philosopher  or  solved  by  the  calculations  of  the 
economist.  It  is  highly  complex  with  its  involve- 
ment of  factors  and  interests  in  agriculture,  com- 
merce, industry,  and  nutrition.  Here,  as  in  other 
domains,  there  is  opportunity  for  an  interplay  of 
science  and  the  arts,  of  experience  and  investiga- 
tion. To  attempt  to  foretell  the  future  seems 
more  like  an  act  of  ill-considered  rashness  than  a 
keen  intellectual  venture.  The  truth  can  only  be 
approached  scientifically.  We  are  beginning  to 
learn  what  real  food  values  mean.  There  is  as  yet 
no  ideal  ration.  The  "world-menu"  is  not  in  sight. 
Fitting  indeed  on  this  occasion  are  the  words  of 
Professor  Rubner : 


60    CHANGES  IN  FOOD  SUPPLY 

The  nutrition  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  is  a  question  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance, deserving  far  more  attention  than  it 
has  hitherto  received.  All  the  great  coun- 
tries ought  to  have  a  central  authority,  a 
food  commission,  which  should  concern  itself 
exclusively  with  the  far-reaching  questions 
of  the  well-being  of  the  people.  The  mate- 
rial, as  it  lies  before  us  today,  is  very  incom- 
plete, but  suffices  to  indicate  the  main  lines 
of  useful  work.  The  nutrition  of  the  masses 
has  so  far  been  mostly  studied  with  regard 
to  political  economy  and  according  to  meth- 
ods and  viewpoints  which  do  not  always 
withstand  the  tests  of  the  physiology  of 
nutrition.  Only  by  means  of  the  physiology 
of  nutrition  is  it  possible  to  carry  on  exact 
research. 

The  nutrition  of  the  masses  is  to  us  a 
problem  which  may  be  approached  and  im- 
proved from  many  sides.  It  is  necessary 
that  not  only  the  hygienists,  in  the  narrower 
sense,  take  up  the  struggle  for  betterment. 


THEIR  RELATION  TO  NUTRITION   61 

but  that  also  the  great  army  of  men,  who  are 
truly  humane  in  their  hearts,  shall  take  their 
places  beside  us.  The  battle  which  we  have 
to  carry  on  is  not  only  against  unavoidable 
and  natural  difficulties;  we  must  not  forget 
that  human  society  includes  many  elements, 
unwilling  to  make  the  least  concession  to  a 
humanitarian  movement,  persons  whose  pros- 
perity is  selfishly  held  superior  to  the  wel- 
fare of  their  neighbors,  and  who  will  oppose 
such  a  movement  with  all  the  means  at  their 
command.  Let  us  hope  that  our  opponents 
will,  at  the  last,  rejoice  with  us  in  a  triumph 
of  the  Humane  Idea.^^ 

22  Rubner,  M.:  The  Nutrition  of  the  People.    Journal  of 
Home  Economics,  1913,  v,  1. 


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